The KAPINTIG Philippines is an annual intercultural learning experience of young Austrians in the Philippines towards building global solidarity. It highlights the instrumental role of DKA partners and Austrian delegates in the whole process of intercultural learning. During the four-week program, the participants immerse in the everyday life of the local people, learn the best practices of the project partners, and understand the issues and challenges in the communities.
This year 2023 there were 9 delegates from Austria. In their first week here in the Philippines, they saw and experienced the places that are a big part of local people’s lives in the urban places of the Philippines which are Quezon City and Manila City. As a partner of DKA, KAPINTIG Philippines invited me as an alumnus of the Lokal Kapintig Network – Exposure Study Program batch 2021 (LKN-ESP) and be representative of ALL Forum to participate in the first 4 days of their activity in Metro Manila.
As the start of their journey in the Philippines on August 2, 2023 KAPINTIG Philippines held a welcome dinner for the delegates with other partner organizations of DKA including the ALL Forum. The program began with the introduction of each organization and performed baptism for the Filipino name of delegates. The delegates will be called by their Filipino names during four weeks program in the Philippines (e.g. Katrin’s Filipino name is Tinay and Johannes’ Filipino name is Juan). We had a lot of fun with different show interludes, we sang and danced. The delegates showed their pictures in Austria, the beautiful places in their country, how they live as an Austrian, and what are they culture especially how they celebrate their Christmas season.
Quezon City and Manila City Tour (August 03 – 04)
The delegates explored Quezon City and Manila together with the Local Kapintigs to experience life as an ordinary Filipino in the city. KAPINTIG Philippines gave them a challenge, it was called the 610 pesos challenge. They have 610 pesos to explore the Quezon City and for the next day another 610 pesos to explore Manila. They need to be able to budget the money for the whole day of the tour for public transport fare, food, and leisure activities. Why 610 pesos only (10 USD)? Because that’s the average daily wage in the Philippines.
August 03, 2024, we started our tour in Quezon city. First to the University of the Philippines one of the top universities in the country. The campus is ideal for a walk because of this landscape. We talked about how patriotic the U.P students is and how aware to the Philippines current situation especially in the government. The Quezon Memorial Shrine is dedicated to the first President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, Manuel L. Quezon. The beautiful park is ideal for family bonding and various street food stalls invite you to taste local specialties.
The next day August 04, 2023 we explored the capital city of the Philippines, Manila. The delegates explored Manila city jail one of the oldest and overcrowded jail in the world. We discussed how the situation of the jail is worsened during the drug of war of the past administration. The number of prisoners is increasing because of the injustice system especially for the marginalized people. We also visitied Quiapo church shows how dominant the catholic religion in the Philippines, Muslim area and Cinatown in Binondo, 3 main museums in Manila; National Museum of Fine Arts, National Museum of Anthropology, and National Museum of Natural History and Intramuros.
Intramuros Manila which was built by the Spaniards during the colonial period. The delegates feel like they were in southern Europe because of the ambiance, old churches, Spanish architectural building, and riding the horse carriage. To end the contrast tour in Metro Manila the delegates watched the beautiful sunset and have a dinner together in Manila Bay. We had a lot of fun during the two days of the tour, the delegates experienced being able to ride public transportation (tricycle, jeepney, and train), they huddled into crowded of people, shopped at the public market, tried to eat Filipino street food, and socialized with local people.
Reflection (August 05)
We shared our experiences and impressions of Quezon City and Manila City and to reflect. The delegates discussed what they saw, heard, smelled, tasted and felt during the 2 days contrast tour. They realized the 610 pesos is not enough to live in the urban area specially to the people who have big family to support and many people are at risk of poverty and the gap between rich and poor is very visible. Aside from this situation, they appreciate the resilience of the local people and learned a lot from them about the cities and the various stations, had great conversations, but also had a very fun time.
By Jebson Longa